PET SNAKE: a special purpose architecture to implement an algebraic attack in hardware

  • Authors:
  • Willi Geiselmann;Kenneth Matheis;Rainer Steinwandt

  • Affiliations:
  • Institut für Kryptographie und Sicherheit, Fakultät für Informatik, Universität Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany;Department of Mathematical Sciences, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL;Department of Mathematical Sciences, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL

  • Venue:
  • Transactions on computational science X
  • Year:
  • 2010

Quantified Score

Hi-index 0.00

Visualization

Abstract

In [23] Raddum and Semaev propose a technique to solve systems of polynomial equations over F2 as occurring in algebraic attacks on block ciphers. This approach is known as MRHS, and we present a special purpose architecture to implement MRHS in a dedicated hardware device. Our preliminary performance analysis of this Parallel Elimination Technique Supporting Nice Algebraic Key Elimination shows that the use of ASICs seems to enable significant performance gains over a software implementation of MRHS. The main parts of the proposed architecture are scalable, the limiting factor being mainly the available bandwidth for interchip communication. Our focus is on a design choice that can be implemented within the limits of available fab technology. The proposed design can be expected to offer a running time improvement in the order of several magnitudes over a software implementation. We do not make any claims about the practical feasibility of an attack against AES-128 with our design, as we do not see the necessary theoretical tools to be available: deriving reliable running time estimates for an algebraic attack with MRHS when being applied to a full-round version of AES-128 is still an open problem.